The Spring 2017 Lab

Lab Members

We are getting ready for another round of work on fungi associated with invasive Impatiens glandulifera. Populations of the invasive plant have been growing around our region according to the invasive weed forum and our own observations around our field research station in Bathampton. CABI suggests that the impacts of the plant are relatively less than many people initially suspect given its abundance, but they also recognise that more research is required. We are trying to understand a bit more about the microbes associated with the plant and how they feed into other trophic levels and other ecological interactions. The plant will start flowering soon, and it really is an amazing plant. In the past, we have isolated microbial communities from the nectar of the flowers and used those microbes in an attempt to understand how microbes compete in this habitat. That was research driven by an amazing undergrad. This year, we are going to bag some flowers to see if we can get an idea of how microbes get to the flowers. More updates on this research soon!